


happiness is

by shadoedseptmbr



Series: L'essai Et Repose [2]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Gen, Pre-Story, Shore Leave, aedan/guns, skyillian blitz
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:00:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26653333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadoedseptmbr/pseuds/shadoedseptmbr
Summary: She's earned her shore leave.
Relationships: n/a
Series: L'essai Et Repose [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1937545
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	happiness is

“Happiness is a Warm Gun.”

She snorted a laugh. On her way to catch the last shuttle of the day out to the spaceport, Aedan Shepard had backtracked to check out her off duty pistol. The locker door was sealed with decidedly non-reg tape. Some joker asshole had slapped a cheap bumpersticker across the latch. She paused to consider it. Someone was gonna make a note somewhere about her being unwilling to leave base without a gun. 

Hey, at least it wasn't her rifle.

Aedan might quibble with the sentiment, anyway, she thought as she flipped out her knife to slit the plastic sticker. “Happiness” is a decent lookout, a solid perch, and moderate air currents in respectable gravity. Then a clean bunk, a shower, and food you don’t have to kill or cook yourself that isn’t going to land you in medical. AND a warm gun.

God, she loves the Marines.

Shepard’s psych profile says _so she’d snuck a look; sue her-it’s her job to sneak_ that she is either too easily satisfied or too carefully compartmentalized, thanks to a deprived childhood and someone ought to look into that before it becomes a problem, but not as long as she’s making clean shots and not starting too many fights. Also, she is an excellent liar which has its uses and doesn’t get her flagged in any way that is exactly detrimental to her rapid rise through the ranks. 

She'd more than earned her shore leave between N training and that last rotation, creeping through Batarian backdoors for information on pirate supply lines. She’d cracked some ribs, dinged her skull. Just a little time in sickbay but they’d been pretty insistent about time off. 

Medically required or not, she’s bound and determined to enjoy it, too, on that fucking dream planet that looks like something out of one of those idiotic holos that her last roommate, Gerte, was always watching with the sound off. Bunch of wholesome farmers making lots of kids behind haybales and cows, probably, but there was a nice hotel Gerte had recommended, with swimming pools, mountains, and probably a decent mattress that didn’t move unless you really put some effort into it.

She didn’t have to pay any attention to the farmers, though. Aedan has a new bikini and a new tattoo on her ass and enough credits to stay pleasantly buzzed for a week on Elysium which, honestly? Is a weird name- apparently named for some book or something. 

It's on her way back to Earth between assignments, there are no drill sergeants, and the forecast is for sun and more sun. 

Maybe she’d add those to her list of things that make her happy. Give the company psych officer a new thing to write about.

**Author's Note:**

> springagainafter once gave me a tumblr fic prompt and it turned into a little ficlet that revealed a lot to me about Aedan, before we meet her in the story.


End file.
